Dear Governor Newsom,
My name is Dr. Dane Fliedner, and I am a board certified, California-licensed pediatrician in Orange County.
In addition to my medical training, I also hold a Master’s Degree in Public Health and at one point in my career was considering a career in Maternal-Child Public Health, interning at the OC Health Department and traveling to Sacramento with the local health officer to learn about the advocacy aspect of public health.
I was one of the earliest recipients of Medical Board of California Service awards for my work in an under-served community.
Since that time, I have also worked in Pediatric Emergency Medicine and have seen first-hand the devastation that severe bacterial infections can have on small children.
I mention all of these things so that you are very clear that I am not against vaccines. I administer them daily in my pediatric practice and my own children are vaccinated and are not vaccine-injured.
I know you are receiving many letters, including from physicians, but wanted to share an aspect of SB277 and now SB276/714 that you may not have considered—and that is the fact that these bills have created a climate of fear and anxiety.
There are many physicians in practice that have been afraid to speak up for fear of retribution, of being targeted by the state, for public censure and loss of professional respect for speaking up regarding these laws—because that is what we often observe happening from what appears to be vindictive agendas by those in power against anyone who dares speak up.

Dear Honorable Governor Newsom,
I am a California-licensed, board-certified, Stanford-, NYU, & UCSF-trained pediatrician. I am not anti-vax. I administer vaccines in my pediatric practice. I believe that vaccines can be effective at reducing the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases for MOST children. I believe that vaccines are safe for MOST children. But not for all…
I am not a “hysterical anti-vaxxer.” I am not the mother of a vaccine-injured child. I am not an unethical doctor selling “fake” medical exemptions. I am not a bureaucrat or a politician.
I am a pediatrician in the trenches. And I am unashamedly, unabashedly, and unequivocally PRO-CHILD. I believe in public health, yet I care for individual children and families who sit across from me everyday, trusting that I am giving them valid, scientific, evidence-based information that will keep their individual baby safe and healthy, and believing that I am providing them with true informed consent.
I am a pediatrician trying to do the best I can for the children in my practice. And the best is not simply repeating that vaccines are “safe and effective.” Because they’re not 100% safe. Because they’re not 100% effective. Because parents are asking questions. And because we, as primary care physicians, need to be able to practice the art and science of medicine to the best of our abilities, for the child sitting in front of us, without bureaucratic handcuffs and fear of retribution.
SB 276 continues to place the decision regarding an individual child’s vaccine risk/benefit assessment and whether or not that child qualifies for a vaccine medical exemption in the hands of the government. As clearly stated by Andrew Kroger M.D., M.P.H., Communications and Education Branch of the Immunization Service Division of the CDC: “It would be inappropriate for anyone other than the treating provider to determine who should be allowed to get a medically-necessary exemption.”

California Bill SB 276 passed the State Senate on Wednesday (September 4, 2019) in the midst of fierce opposition from the public.
SB 276 makes it nearly impossible for medical doctors to write exemptions for childhood vaccines for medical reasons.
California Dr. Robert J. Rowen did not hold back when describing his feelings for the California Senate: "Despicable, Dishonest, Double Standard and Lying Politicians."
All eyes are now on California Governor Gavin Newsom who needs to sign the bill to become law, or veto it.
Will he follow the progressive liberal values he touts and stand up for the helpless, California's children, and the rights of parents and families to choose their own medical doctors to decide on vaccines, or will he become another pawn in Big Pharma's powerful political lobby machine?

While proponents of Senate Bill (SB) 276 act as if vaccine-inflicted injuries and deaths don’t exist, the big question is whether their fellow lawmakers and Governor will ignore the federal law of the land and growing chorus of informed Democrat voices coming out against the assault on exemptions from mandatory vaccinations that cannot be made safe for all our sons and daughters.
Democrat Gov. Jared Polis made national headlines when he took a strong stand for medical freedom and torpedoed legislation in Colorado that mirrors the bills that have been introduced in states like New York, Oregon and California.
When asked about vaccination mandates? “You can’t do that at the point of a gun,” Polis told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton during an interview on “Rising.” “When the government tries to force parents to do this, it creates distrust in both vaccinations and distrust in government,” added Polis, whose state has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

During their quarterly meeting on August 8, 2019, The California Medical Board (CMB) surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, voted to support SB276, Senator Richard Pan’s medical exemption bill that places narrow restrictions on doctors’ abilities to write vaccine exemptions for school aged children.
SB276 is not about vaccines, it is a bill regarding the exemption process required to fulfill California’s school vaccine mandate.
The bill, in an unprecedented way, hands over the jurisdiction of reviewing and revoking the medical opinions of physicians from the CMB to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and California Department of Health and Human Services (CHHS).
In May, when the Board previously voted to “Support SB276 in Concept” - the concept being that physicians writing fraudulent medical exemptions should be investigated - CMB Members raised a number of concerns on the bill. These concerns were not addressed by the most recent amendments to SB276, nor were they brought up for discussion at yesterday’s board meeting. So it is surprising that the CMB changed their position to Support SB276.
What (or who) made them change their positions?

SB 276 was heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee today, July 10, 2019.
Due to the exorbitant costs, it was sent to the Suspense File. Typically this is where a bill goes to die.
However, SB 276 could be removed from the Suspense File on August 31st and continue to move during this session.
It would have to pass the Assembly Floor before going back to the Senate for a Concurrence vote on the Assembly amendments and pass the Senate once more before hitting Newsom's desk for his signature or veto.

Action is needed week to stop SB 276 sponsored by Senator Richard Pan which is designed to greatly reduce your family’s accessibility to lifesaving medical vaccine exemptions. The bill has passed the Senate and now has a hearing in the Assembly Health Committee Thursday, June 20th at the adjournment of the Assembly in room 4202 of the Capitol.
OPPOSE SB 276!
Senate Bill 276 is designed to greatly reduce the number of families who can take a lifesaving medical vaccine exemption.
Do not be fooled by recent amendments! They do not address the fundamental problems with this bill.
SB 276 still betrays the promise made by legislators to the people in 2015 to protect the medical vaccine exemption.
The doctor-patient relationship is built on trust by the patient that the doctor will, first, do no harm. SB 276 still interferes in the private doctor-patient relationship and prevents a doctor from being free to exercise professional judgment and conscience in protecting the patient from harm when granting a medical vaccine exemption without bureaucratic arbitrary restrictions and limits.
State public health officials should not have power to override the judgment of private physicians. SB 276 inappropriately places the granting or withholding of medical vaccine exemptions for patients in the hands of state employees, rather than in the hands of private physicians who personally care for patients.
There is individual susceptibility to vaccine reactions and vaccine providers cannot reliably predict who will be harmed. SB 276 forces doctors and other vaccine providers to adhere to narrow vaccine contraindications and withhold medical vaccine exemptions from potentially susceptible children, who could die or be severely injured by vaccines mandated for daycare and school.
SB 276 is bad public health law.

As a medical doctor, I am steadfastly against Senate Bill 276 because it is trying to fix a problem that does not exist.
Vaccination rates for children in California are above levels for ”community immunity.” According to California Department of Public Health, 99.3 percent do not even have medical exemptions. Further, over 97 percent have received the MMR. The majority of measles outbreaks are from unvaccinated foreign travelers, and spread mostly by vaccinated adults.
Not only is there no reason for this bill from a science or math perspective – which will cost taxpayers nearly $400 million as estimated by a PhD colleague who worked for Cal Department of Health’s Immunization Branch – this bill is catastrophic from a medical-legal perspective.
SB276 states that a “state or local health clerk” or “designee” can “revoke” a medical exemption I’ve authored. Even worse than that, under SB276, the CDC guidelines are so narrow that reactions like paralysis, cardiac arrest, blindness, and seizures will no longer be considered as grounds for granting a medical exemption.
In this new SB276 world, when a child dies from a medical decision forced upon them by government bureaucrats – a decision that went against the advice of the child’s actual MD – who is held accountable? SB276 is a liability nightmare in the making.
“Local health clerks” and their state “designees” cannot and should not practice medicine and be authorized to contradict a trusted doctor’s medical judgments. SB276 hijacks the practice of medicine and gives it to the State, when there is no proof of fraudulent exemptions in the first place, resulting in a lack of trust in the entire medical profession.
Bottom line: If the State doesn’t trust a doctor, who will?

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that California Governor Gavin Newsom has doubts about proposed bill SB 276, which would restrict medical doctors from writing vaccine exemptions and require all medical exemptions for vaccines to be approved by the state Department of Public Health.
SB 276 recently passed the full Senate by a vote of 24 YES to 10 NO and the bill will now go to the California Assembly.
The Chronicle is reporting that Governor Newsom supports the doctor-patient relationship more than "bureaucratic relationships."
“I like doctor-patient relationships. Bureaucratic relationships are more challenging for me,” Newsom told reporters at the California Democratic Party convention in San Francisco.
“I’m a parent. I don’t want someone that the governor appointed to make a decision for my family.”
The Chronicle reports that while the Governor did not explicitly say he would veto SB276, he cast "serious doubts on its prospects should it reach his desk."
“With respect, as a father of four that goes through this on a consistent basis, that’s just something we need to pause and think about,” Newsom said.
“I believe in immunizations. However, I do legitimately have concerns about a bureaucrat making a decision that is very personal.”

The California Senate Health Committee hearing for SB 276 in Sacramento on Wednesday, April 24th at 1:30 pm in the John L. Burton Hearing Room 4203.
We need your action this week to stop SB 276 sponsored by Senator Richard Pan which interferes with and restricts the medical exemption to mandatory vaccinations in California.
It is inappropriate for The California Department of Public Health (CDPH), a state agency of unelected bureaucrats, to be given legal authority to hijack the private patient physician relationship by being placed in the position to reject doctor issued medical vaccine exemptions.
Forcing physicians to violate their professional judgment and their conscience is a form of state-sponsored tyranny that should not be part of public health law in any state, especially in California where parents who witness vaccine reactions in their family no longer have the protective safety of the personal belief exemption due to another bill, SB 277 in 2015, by the same bill author.
SB 276 discriminates against those who can’t tolerate vaccination. A child injured or killed by a vaccine is just as important as a child who gets sick from a vaccine preventable illness. The United States Government has paid out more than $4 billion dollars to vaccine victims through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
VOTE NO on SB 276!